The Jackson area is still drying out from the Christmas day storms that dumped several inches of rain.

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City officials said leaves and sticks on the road causes problems in Jackson when storms come through. The leaves get washed into storm drains, leaving nowhere for water to go except into people’s yards.

In the Presidential Hills neighborhood, water covered several roads and yards. Mayor Harvey Johnson said it is one of some 20 areas across the city where flooding was reported.

“We had several crews out yesterday, working throughout the city,” Johnson said.

Parts of Belhaven were also underwater.

“(It’s) about 8 inches deep, I would say, at the step, flowing across the front lawn,” said Vernon Miles, who is visiting his family in Belhaven.

Miles, of Arkansas, captured a video at his mother-in-law’s house on Laurel Street on Tuesday. He and other neighbors said it is an old problem, and the city should be held accountable.

“I’ve had two cards flooded in the past year,” said resident Jackie Smithers.

Residents said every time it rains hard, Belhaven Creek floods. On Tuesday, water rushed down Saint Mary Street and into cars and homes.

“It isn’t because of any clogged drains. It’s because of the creek that overflows. It has so much water flowing into it, (and) it hasn’t been dredged out. That problem hasn’t been fixed,” Miles said.

“We’re working on addressing the problems that we were not able to address with our manpower (Tuesday) to try to prevent the flooding from happening in those areas,” Johnson said.

Johnson said clogged drains and ditches caused almost half of the flooding cases in the city on Tuesday. He noted that a lot of the Christmas Day flooding could have been avoided if leaves were just bagged instead of blown into the streets.

The mayor said there are other areas, like in Belhaven, that's going to take more work than unclogging drains.